The years of discounts thing baffles me....wasn't Smyths salary decided by an arbitrator at least once? and he skipped camp in a salary dispute at least once....he made over $21million in his Oiler career - I fail to see the discounts? I'm not defending Lowe here, but I don't think this is a valis defence of Smyth either.

I think it may have been simply the fact that Smyth just wasn't in the Oilers future plans. They weren't motivated to get a deal done with him and made a pathetic effort to do so at the last moment. But there's probably only a handful of people who know the truth and any of us aren't in that group.

Ocham's Razor probably applies here.

So anyways - lets get on to some important stuff.

BTW. Sorry you guys just got spammed so hard. I like chirpin' here, but its probably time to up the security at BOA.

Because I don't believe for a second that a former holdout who, prior to last year, was a zero-time All-Star, a zero-time winner of any award, a zero-time NHL top-twenty scorer, and didn't spend a day of his life as one of the five best players at his position ever took a penny less than he deserved.

And you know what? Good for him. Money is good. I like money. You like money. But a truly selfless player says things like "I'll take less money to help a fanbase that has embraced me and a team that's fallen on hard times", not "CA-CHING! CA-CHING! CAREER YEAR WHEN MY CONTRACT WAS UP! AGAIN!"

Again, I'm not saying Smyth is a bad person or a classless person. He's 95% of hockey players in that department He's Fernando Pisani, Dwayne Roloson, and Shawn Horcoff, among others. And he's done more off the ice than just about any of them. Greed's not a crime. But saying that he had slaved away for less than he was worth for years and had thus earned the right to dash for the highest bidder when his first crack at unrestricted free agency presented itself is making him into more than he is.

If I ever see Ryan Smyth play again before I die, I'm going to cheer him to the skies before the game because he deserves it and the fact that he's mortal after all in no way diminishes all he is. But I'm not going to consider him beyond reproach either.

But a truly selfless player says things like "I'll take less money to help a fanbase that has embraced me and a team that's fallen on hard times", not "CA-CHING! CA-CHING! CAREER YEAR WHEN MY CONTRACT WAS UP!

So you're suggesting that Smyth only tries extra hard when his contract is up?

I would argue that a player playing really well in his final year of a contract is something that fans tend to notice, so it seems more prevalent than it really is.

And technically, Ryan Smyth did take a pay cut in 1999-2000 of about $300,000. And I wouldn't exactly call the guy (with his near-point-a-game totals) overpaid in the 2000s, averaging about $3 million a year. It's not bad for a first line winger, but he could have gotten more elsewhere.

i dont know if saying that in the earlier years he could of gotten more money elsewhere is a fair comment seeing as how he was rfa for those years. During that time rfa's genereally are going to make less money then they would if they were ufa.